NYFW A/W10: Diesel Black Gold

As the grunge look continues to dominate chic street style mavens from LA to New York to London to Paris, Mr. Renzo Rosso was able to capitalize on what Diesel, in all its grimy rock n’ roll glory, does best: biker chic meets good old fashioned Italian sex appeal.

Acid wash denim overalls, blouses and minis were teamed with body-hugging leather pinafores and trousers. There were ultra-body con nude minis with black filigree detailing which gave the illusion of a nude yet thoroughly tattooed badass female with the occasional rogue strip of rouched leather snaking round the models’ waists.

Studded biker jackets with jackal skulls splashed graffiti-style across the backs toughened up even the most angelic faced of his models. Gender benders were also to be seen as male models prowled the runways in androgynous skin-tight leather head to toe ensembles (only the Italians) and one chap even had his matchy-matchy double denim look overlaid with a floor-length sheer black chiffon gown-like-contraption–for lack of a better word, let’s call it the “man maxi.”

Personally, I swooned at the sight of oversized blazers with moth-eaten burnt cheese cloth for trim. It was like Rodarte’s SS10 tribal amazon swamp things had crawled out of the marsh and onto the sidewalks of the real world. But while said jacket exuded the ultimate in distressed nonchalant rocker cool, in these cash-strapped times, are we really going to shell out upwards of £600 when we can simply drop off our old blazers at grandma’s and let the moths go nuts? I don’t think so. But therein lies the fun in this collection, chances are, you already have 3/4 of it sitting in your wardrobe at home. It’s merely a matter of restyling, re-accessorizing and a bit of customization.